This application is related to co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/859,817, filed concurrently herewith.
The present invention relates to a method and system for targeted information display and in particular, but not exclusively, to the targeted display of information to passers-by, for example, in a shopping mall.
Mobile devices with communications capability are becoming ubiquitous, the most common being the cell phone and other devices employing cellular radio technology. Many services are being implemented using such devices and many more may be expected as information regarding the location or position of the mobile device becomes readily available through the implementation of location discovery within the mobile radio infrastructure.
One type of service that is emerging is the distribution of local information which is relevant only to a particular narrow geographic location and need only be communicated to people within that location. Such information is usually distributed as a result of a request generated from a mobile device, the request either including the device""s location or authorizing the obtaining of the device""s location from a location server of the mobile radio infrastructure. The locally-relevant information can also be pushed over the mobile radio infrastructure to mobile devices within a given locality, though the costs of doing so are high. The type of information which it is most desirable to be able to push is information with a certain immediacy to it either because the information will go out of date quickly or because the target audience is transitory. One example is where a theatre still has seats available for a show shortly starting, and would like to offer the seats at half price. Another example is information about consumer goods (particularly new products or products under special promotion) which a shop wishes to advertise to consumers passing by.
In view of the cost and complexity of using cellular mobile radio networks to push information, it would be useful to have a different way of distributing local information which has immediacy to it.
A number of technologies exist for the short range communication of information between mobile devices. These technologies include infra-red based technologies and low-power radio technologies (including, in particular, the recent xe2x80x9cBluetoothxe2x80x9d short range wireless standard). Depending on the technology implementation, differing types of message propagation will be enabled including asynchronous message broadcast, and multicast and point-to-point duplex connections established after coordination and negotiation between communicating devices.
Such short-range communication systems can be used to communicate information between commercial premises and passers-by provided, of course, the passers-by are equipped with suitable receiving devices. A further restriction on the usefulness of short-range communication devices for sending commercial information to passers-by is that passers-by will generally ignore such information unless they have some expectation that it will be of interest to them; even with this expectation, however, passers-by may well not be bothered to get out their communication device to check whether an incoming message is of interest.
It is known to display on an HTML display terminal a user""s display page when the user approaches the terminalxe2x80x94see the paper xe2x80x9cLocation Aware Mobile Computingxe2x80x9d, H. W. Peter Beadle, B. Harper, G. Q. Maguire, J. Judge; Proc. IEEE/IEE International Conference on Telecommunications, (ICT""97), Melbourne, April, 1997. It is also known to push promotions concerning particular shops to the mobile devices of users who are detected as being near the shops and have a profile indicating that they are likely to be interested.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method and system for presenting information to passers-by that overcomes at least some of the foregoing difficulties.
According to one aspect of the invention, a method of targeted content display, comprises the steps of:
(a) detecting the presence of persons passing through a presence zone on the basis of transmissions made from mobile communication devices carried by such persons;
(b) using information in said transmissions to ascertain interest indicators associated with the detected persons;
(c) selecting content for display having regard to interest indicators found in step (b); and
(d) displaying the selected content on a display.
Steps (a) to (d) are carried out on an on-going basis with the displayed content being updated from time to time. The selection of content for display at each update is based on the interest indicators of the most recently detected persons without restriction to there only being a single such person. When multiple persons have been recently detected, content selection is based on the interest indicators of more than one person.
Another aspect of the invention relates to a display system having a detection arrangement for detecting the presence of persons passing through a presence zone on the basis of transmissions made from mobile communication devices carried by such persons. An interest-determination sub-system uses information in the transmissions to ascertain interest indicators associated with the detected persons. A content selector selects content for display; the selected content is with regard to the interest indicators obtained by the interest-determination sub-system. An output arrangement has a display for displaying the content selected by the content selector. The display is separate from the mobile communication devices. The display is arranged to operate on an on-going basis with the displayed content being updated from time to time. The content selector selects content for display at each update in dependence on the interest indicators obtained by the interest-determination sub-system for the most recently detected persons without restriction to there only being a single such person. When multiple persons have been recently detected, content selection is based on the interest indicators of more than one person.
A further aspect of the invention relates to a method of targeted stimulation by detecting the presence of creatures passing through a presence zone on the basis of transmissions made from mobile communication devices, carried by such creatures. Information in the transmissions is used to ascertain interest indicators associated with the detected creatures. Content having regard to the ascertained interest indicators is selected. The selected content is supplied to a sensory stimulator separate from the mobile communication devices. The foregoing steps are carried out on an on-going basis with the content being updated from time to time. The selection of content for stimulation at each update is based on the interest indicators of the most recently detected creatures without restriction to there only being a single such creature. When multiple creatures have been recently detected, content selection is based on the interest indicators of more than one creature.
Another aspect of the invention relates to a system having a detection arrangement for detecting the presence of creatures passing through a presence zone on the basis of transmissions made from mobile communication devices carried by such creatures. An interest-determination sub-system uses information in the transmissions to ascertain interest indicators associated with the detected creatures. A content selector selects content for stimulation of the creatures having regard to the interest indicators obtained by the interest-determination sub-system. An output arrangement has a stimulator for stimulating the content selected by the content selector. The stimulator is separate from the mobile communication devices. The system is arranged to operate on an on-going basis with the stimulated content being updated from time to time. The content selector is operative to select content to be supplied to the stimulator at each update in dependence on the interest indicators obtained by the interest-determination sub-system for the most recently detected creatures without restriction to there only being a single such creature. When multiple creatures have been recently detected, content selection is based on the interest indicators of more than one creature.